Acute Human Model of Ventricular Fibrillation

Background The mechanisms that underlie cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in humans remain controversial and difficult to study. This report describes a new human model to evaluate CPR during the first 1 to 2 minutes after the onset of ventricular fibrillation (VF). With this model, standard CPR was compared with active compression-decompression (ACD) CPR, a method that uses a handheld suction device to actively compress and actively decompress the chest. Methods and Results During routine inductions of VF as part of a transvenous lead cardioverter/defibrillator implantation procedure, CPR was performed in 21 patients if the first defibrillation shock failed and until a successful rescue shock